Today we're announcing that the Open Platform is officially open for business. We have improved and rebuilt the API, added a new application framework and developed an experimental commercial model around the whole initiative.

Go ahead and try the new API now. You can play with it using our new API Explorer.

There's also a full Getting Started Guide with both a quick-start and a deep-dive into what's available and how it works.

The first thing to say is 'thank you' to everyone who participated in the Beta program. You have helped us prove that this wasn't just a good idea but that it was actually going to be something people would use to create value.

We had over 2,000 developers register and over 200 apps, products,visualisations, tools and client libraries built against the Beta API. Weare very proud to have been able to help inspire and generate so manygreat projects.

Now we want to invite you to try the newly relaunched andupdated API. The new API format is slightly different to the old one,but it has many new features that we think you'll like. Here's an overview, and here's the FAQ.

One of the nice new features is that you can access much of the APIwithout a key, including headlines, tags and metadata.

And you can still get full article content which now includes an embeddedadvertisement and analytics code. In order to do that you will needto agree to the new T&Cs and obtain a new key. You will then have access immediately without having to wait for approval.

It's important to note that we will be retiring the old beta API in October. You can find details on the site here or by posting to the Google Group if you need any help in upgrading your old application.

But there's some other amazing stuff worth looking at more closely, too.

Today we are also introducing our MicroApp framework for integrating applications directly within the Guardian network. We've been using it internally to accelerate our release process, but now we are making this available to commercial partners who want to build apps with and for us.

Lead software architect Mat Wall does a great job of contextualising it in terms of the larger strategy and broadly describes how it works technically in this video below.

Again, thank you all for your comments, issues and feedback over the last year. We have taken much of it onboard and we hope that the new API meets all of your existing requirements and even exceeds them giving you new features to enjoy and new avenues to explore.

Lastly, please continue to follow us @openplatform. This is just the beginning of the journey.